Small MPU – Page 1212

  • News

    SKA gears up for period drama, soccer film

    2000-02-11T12:51:00Z

    Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn's SKA Films, the UK production company behind Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and the upcoming Snatch, is readying at least two other projects to shoot this year.Newcomer Simon Cooke is to direct a $12m-15m period film in the UK this autumn. SKA expects to ...

  • News

    Overseas plunges into Dungeons again

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Overseas Filmgroup has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Dungeons And Dragons: The Sequel to be produced by Zinc Entertainment, a division of Joel Silver's Silver Pictures, and Marching Band Productions in association with Sweetpea Entertainment. Warner Home Video is handling video rights in the US and certain territories. Marching Band ...

  • News

    Scott-Thomas steals Lupin role

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Kristin Scott-Thomas will co-star with Romain Duris in Arsene Lupin, a big-budget story of 19th century adventure, romance and burglary.The film to be directed by Jean-Paul Salome is an adaptation of La Comtesse De Cagliostro, the first of the celebrated Lupin novels by Maurice Leblanc. The screenplay is by Salome ...

  • News

    Rai takes Heart Elsewhere

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Rai Trade, the film sales arm of Italian state broadcast-production and distribution group Rai, has had a successful time this year at Cannes.It has signed a string of sales on competition film The Heart Elsewhere (Il Cuore Al Trove) which is directed by celebrated auteur Pupi Avati, who nowadays doubles ...

  • News

    Argentina appoints envoys

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Argentina's Film Institute INCAA has appointed four international representatives to act as "antenna" for the nation's cinema. They include journalist Carlos Hugo Aztarain in Spain, Mar del Plata director Miguel Pereira in the UK, film professor Pablo Perel in Israel and producer Matias Doorn in the US. Two more representatives ...

  • News

    Doug Chiang prepares his Robota

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Top visual effects supplier Doug Chiang is putting together Robota, a robot-action adventure which will mix live action and 3D animation. Already backed by French animation house Sparx, Chaing wants to structure the $50m picture as a Euro-US co-venture and is seeking studio-level finance or co-production. Sparx co-chiefs Jean-Christophe Bernard ...

  • Reviews

    That Day (Ce Jour-La)

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Raoul Ruiz. France-Switzerland. 2003. 105minsLong-term followers of the maverick Raoul Ruiz - or indeed, viewers who discovered him through his unlikely 2001 box-office hit Time Regained - are used to expecting the unexpected. But the Swiss-set That Day (Ce Jour-La) is unpredictable largely for being uncharacteristically predictable, even mechanical. ...

  • Reviews

    Strayed (Les Egares)

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Andre Techine. France. 2003. 95minsTender and tasteful, Strayed (Les Egares) takes a conventional approach to what will seem familiar material to most international audiences. Set amid sun-dappled vistas of rural France, it captures the conflicting emotions and underlying tensions of a lyrical interlude stolen from the chaos of wartime ...

  • Reviews

    Strayed (Les Egares)

    2003-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Andre Techine. France. 2003. 95minsTender and tasteful, Strayed (Les Egares) takes a conventional approach to what will seem familiar material to most international audiences. Set amid sun-dappled vistas of rural France, it captures the conflicting emotions and underlying tensions of a lyrical interlude stolen from the chaos of wartime ...

  • News

    Gallo apologises for 'disastrous' Brown Bunny

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    A chastened Vincent Gallo apologised yesterday to financiers and audiences for his film The Brown Bunny, which had a disastrous reception at Cannes."I accept what the critics say," said the movie's outspoken writer-producer-director-editor-cameraman. "If no-one wants to see it, they're right - it's a disaster of a film ...

  • News

    Greenaway saddles up with erotic horsemen

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    Peter Greenaway, the experimental British director whose Tulse Luper Suitcases screens in competition tomorrow, has set 55 Men On Horseback as his next film. The long-gestating project is described by his producing partner Kees Kasander as "a very commercial, lighter piece". The Euros 6m-Euros 7m picture draws on 18th Century ...

  • Reviews

    New Year's Day

    2000-02-11T14:03:00Z

    Dir: Suri Krishnamma. UK. 1999. 101mins.Prod co: Alchymie. Int'l sales: The Sales Co. Prods: Steven Cleary, Simon Channing-Williams. Co-prods: Charles Steel, Marianne Slot, Vibeke Windelov. Exec prods: Beau Rogers, David Forrest. Scr: Ralph Brown. DoP: John De Borman. Prod des: Eve Stewart. Ed: Adam Ross. Mus: Julian Nott. Main cast: ...

  • News

    Spain's Filmax boards UGC's Daltons

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    Spanish mini-studio Filmax has boarded UGC's mega-production The Daltons, signing on as co-producer and picking up distribution rights in both Spain and Latin America.The $26m live-action comedy, whose characters are adapted from the hugely successful Lucky Luke comic book series, is to be directed by Philippe Haim and shoot in ...

  • News

    Cannes: only the strong survive

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    While there's no question that the international sales business was still reeling from the downturn in European TV, Cannes this year proved that theatrical movies were still capable of drawing solid prices from most territories. "There were fewer viable, real movies, but people who are making real theatrical movies are ...

  • News

    Prague's Stillking plans English-language Moscow hostage feature

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    Acclaimed Czech commercials director Ivan Zacharias has signed onto an original English-language feature about last year's Moscow hostage crisis titled Russian Theatre, Prague's Stillking Films has announced.It is the first foray into original production announced by Stillking, a leading Prague production services company. The firm has slated the filming of ...

  • News

    Trudie Styler frustrated at Sweatbox delay

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    Trudie Styler faces a battle with Walt Disney to secure a release for The Sweatbox, the critically acclaimed documentary on the making of a Walt Disney feature animation which she co-directed and co-produced with John-Paul Davidson.Styler was expecting a release through BVI but parent Disney has yet to commit to ...

  • News

    Cannes goes from feast to famine

    2003-05-23T04:05:00Z

    You win some, you lose some. Last year, Cannes was basking in an abundance of riches that ranged from Palme d'Or winner The Pianist to dazzling documentary Bowling For Columbine and red hot discovery City Of God. This year, the collective Competition choices were considered the worst in living memory ...

  • News

    Lions Gate snaps up Von Trier's Dogville

    2003-05-23T00:00:00Z

    LionsGate Films has bought all North American rights to Lars Von Trier's criticallyacclaimed drama Dogville, starring Oscar winner Nicole Kidman.TomOrtenberg, president of Lions Gate Films Releasing, Peter Block, president of home entertainment, acquisitionsand new media, and Jason Constantine, vice president of acquisitions,negotiated the deal on behalf of Lions Gate.AnnakarinStrom, chief ...

  • News

    Highlight reports increased revenue and profits

    2003-05-23T00:00:00Z

    Swiss media concern Highlight Communications has posted a 16% increase in consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2003 in spite of difficult market conditions.The group, which is currently looking to acquire majority control of Germany's Constantin Film where it has a 41.4% interest, reported revenues of $32.7m (CHF 42.3m) ...

  • Reviews

    Elephant

    2003-05-23T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Gus Van Sant. US. 2003. 81minsIn recent years Gus Van Sant's erratic career has had all the hallmarks ofan amnesiac desperately seeking clues to his true identity. He has assumedthe ill-fitting personalities of Hitchcock imitator (Psycho) and Dogme-styleexperimenter (Gerry) and even appeared to try cloning himself with a GoodWill ...